A favorite directionless investment method with option sellers is called the vertical spread or the Weekly Options. One reason it’s so well-liked is because it’s one of the easiest option strategies to understand. Another explanation for it’s attractiveness is that once the trade is placed there can be very little attention needed to supervise it – allowing the credit spread trader to go out and spend their time doing other things rather than sitting in a dark room staring at a trading screen all day long.
The credit spread trade is a basic building block of many if not most other more complex option trading strategies such as the iron condor spread, the butterfly, and the double diagonal trade. For example, the butterfly is created using one credit spread and one debit spread, while the iron condor is made up from two credit spreads, one on either side of where the underlying is currently trading at.
Traders like to sell these vertical spreads because when invested correctly the trades have a good probability of success and can allow the investor to still profit and ‘win’ without having to be exactly right with priced direction and movement. When sold correctly, credit spreads can bring the trader a good monthly return while the individual actually placing the trade could be incorrect with their belief and ‘prediction’ of where the stock market would be heading next.
Let’s create an imaginary trading scenario to illustrate. Imagine that a trader believes that a particular stock will be heading down in the short term. Because he is bearish on this stock, he sells a bearish credit spread called a bear call spread which benefits from bearish move.
If the stock does move down as our trader anticipates, this spread trade wins. If the stock does absolutely nothing and just remains trading at it’s current level, this trade wins. Even if the stock moves up against our traders outlook, this trade can win just as long as it doesn’t move up too much. The only way this position will lose money is if the stock moves too high too fast – in which case the trade could still be profitable just as long as our trader knows how to properly manage and adjust the position – which is one reason why this trade – which is also referred to as the Iron Condor strategy is so popular among option traders.
Mr. Ted is an option selling loony – particularly enthusiastic with trading the credit spread and the weekly options . Go visit his Iron Condor Trading Website to hear more about his Extremely Straight forward Technique to ride the weeklys for consistent earnings.